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Police said the attack occurred about 5:30 p.m. at the Best Buy near the Avenues mall, 9930 Southside Blvd.

Tadros

A 9-year-old girl was attacked by a man who is accused of luring her away from her mother and into a public restroom Friday night at a Best Buy on the Southside, police said. The suspect has been charged and jailed.

Hearing what sounded like an attack, a female customer interrupted the assault inside the women’s restroom and alerted store employees who caught the man before he could flee. Employees held the man until police arrived, said Sgt. Jay Farhat of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.

The girl was in stable condition at UF Health Jacksonville. Information about her injuries wasn’t released, but Farhat said the attack was violent and intended to seriously harm the child. Because it was early in the investigation it was unknown whether the attack was sexual in nature, he said.

Police charged a man, identified as James Patrick Tadros, 29, of St. Johns County, with attempted murder, false imprisonment and criminal mischief. Police said he damaged the interview room while in custody.

Police have released a few more details of the attack, which occurred about 5:30 p.m. at the Best Buy at 9930 Southside Blvd. Store security cameras recorded video of the man coercing the girl into the women’s bathroom. After the eyewitness sought help, a store employee entered the bathroom and asked if anyone needed help, to which a ‘mumbling’ response was heard. The employee looked under the stall and saw the suspect holding the girl’s head inside a toilet bowl, police said.

The girl later said she did not know the man, police said. She told police the man kicked and punched her, put a plastic bag over her head and shoved her head into a toilet bowl.

Employees declined comment Friday night, but referred the Times-Union to a corporate spokesman, who couldn’t be immediately reached for comment.

Cashondra Kasper was among the customers shocked to see police when she arrived.

“My God! That’s sick. How can something like that happen, again?” Kasper said.

On June 21, Cherish Perrywinkle was abducted from a Northside Walmart, sexually assaulted and strangled.

Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty against Donald James Smith, a registered sex offender.